mikymu - love the idea, unfortunately the moderators would shut it down within the first 4 posts...it's not good for business, ya know.

 

Given that you are new to the forum, I'd suggest you look at the unbelievable amount of DIYs mikymu has provided for free to all of us. I wouldn't be so quick to assume he is pumping anyone's shop.

 

You really do need to get it straight. Go read his opening post again. There was a lot more that influenced his decision to go with the particular shop in question than just his price. His premise is that certain shops rest on their laurels and charge a king's ransom because of their trophies. At the same time, there are unsung heros out there who have the same level of service and quality who don't bend you over every time your fenuber valve needs a microadjustment. There's a difference there. Mike is trying to help put together something that will help people avoid paying more than they need to for quality work. The bottomline with a guy like Mike is value. That's how much quality do you get for your dollar, not focusing on spending the least dollars possible at the expense of reliability or performance.

BTW, I like your heart surgeon example since Mike is a doctor...

 

One benefit to a thread based review system is to make sure that a particular shop isn't resting on it's laurels. With another vehicle forum, I found there was a pattern of new strong shops establishing a solid reputation, then getting too popular, overbooking then quality went south fast. Not saying this is the case with vendors here, but you can get a sense over time if a particular shop is "keeping up the good work". As I mentioned on Rennlist, something like this is very valuable so long as the mods to take too strong a pro-advertiser slant.

 

1) Everyone is NOT in the know, and even the people in the know do not know every aspect of every shop. So this would still be beneficial to everyone.

2) Why should they have to do that when the information can be collected and collaborated making it easier on everyone.

3) And this is an opinion board, so it fits right in, and they could spend all day searching and reading posts or be directed straight to the best businesses on the board, not to mention the bad apples will be weeded out much faster.

4) No, it's not price, it's VALUE. And no you do not always get what you pay for, you can't be "in the know" to make a statement like that. There are plenty of examples of people on this board paying Porsche tax and getting subpar service.

But it makes a whole lot of difference if someone vouches for a person.



What is being mentioned here is a streamlined effort of what is already going on, so there really is no contradictory point other than wanting to make people have to search all day to find the same information.

 

Wow, clueless. I've seen numerous friends get ripped off over the years. Some that charge the most for their products are also the biggest crooks. you don't always get what you pay for...

Back on topic, I think this is a great idea in theory, but we have seen so many threads shut down already because you can't speak negatively about board sponsors... not to mention some members have been banned just for trying to share alternative products, but because they aren't sponsors, it's not allowed.

 

I think the sponsors could just have a rating system other than the REP points. Maybe a ten star rating system that you could just leave a rating for, but that could be displayed what rating you left so there won't be any incognito negatives or boosters (COD, LOL).

Maybe a rating system with different variables like Service, Value, Workmanship etc. That's the least obtrusive and leaves no room for pages of bickering over who's tuner is better. That way, if a person is interested, they can just click on the tuner's profile and find all the information they need.

 

NOW this is getting good.

-Troy

 

good discussion but a lot of misinformation about forum moderation and bias...there are many tools here for members to utilize...one is the bad actors bulletin board here:

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...tin-board.html

anyone who was around for the Wheel Dynamics fiasco will know that we will take a members side against a forum sponsor when necessary...as far as flame threads are concerned..they get closed whether they are about a sponsor or a member but they do remain up for all to see when both parties have had their say...we have seen too many instances of fake accounts being created just to slander a vendor or another member to let threads like that rage on the board and harm innocent people...when there is obvious wrongdoing as in the case of Wheel Dynamics and the member who resold the damaged wheels the thread was kept open in the hopes of a resolution but none was forthcoming...in nearly all instances when abuses are reported to us first we are able to resolve them (at least we try our best) and when a sponsor is involved we have even more leverage...

there is also a place for members to post about non-sponsor deals

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...al-thread.html

it is also appropriate for any member to post anywhere about any good deal or good service they receive whether from a sponsor or not...the problem is in the manner it is reported...posting the name of the shop or mechanic, their address and phone is fine (what more does another member need to find them)...posting active links to their website or promotional material for them is not...this is not asking too much in my opinion since this is a fully sponsored free to members board not a member site like Rennlist and those who pay the bills deserve some consideration...I can see something like what has been suggested working better on Rennlist than here but we will sure give it some thought to see if there is a way to implement something like that here

 

Dez, the problem with this approach is some sponsors give discounts, deals, favors to customers to either leave positive rep, leave positive experience posts, or act as a shill - you've seen posts from members who just joined, posted one single message praising how good "company x" is, and never post again. The rep points would be invalidated because we can't filter the BS from the truth.

For example - on this very thread, one of the members posting here has an IP address that matches a previously banned member, who has an email address that matches a member who also logged on today. So it appears that a member has created multiple user identities, share the same IP, but are posting as different people. How do we determine if a person is posting truthfully, or hiding behind an identity?

 

So you are suggesting that moderators shut down for financial gain?

IB's success in business is not my concern. We are not given any mandate to protect the vendors. Mods don't work for IB. We don't get paid or special deals from IB or the vendors.

When people are ripped off, we let the community know. When vendors do wrong, they are removed. When people complain, we try to intervene - often times vendors are much more willing to do right if their reputation hasn't been bashed openly by the casual observer. More importantly, the more that is posted, the harder it becomes to correct the grievance. I have no skin in the game other than protecting this site and its members...and I do so on a voluntary basis.

b

 

I hope it is more than just about sponsorship. I think when you create a site where established customers can give their honest feedback about various shops has a much strong draw to shops and car enthusiast to do more business

Thanks Matt. Yes, value is what I am looking for and thanks for for pointing me to the right shops on more than one occasion. I just wish your and many other helpful member's knowledge can be easily shared with some sort of rating system with easy to read feedback .. be it good or bad

Great suggestions!

That's good to hear. So far this is what I have proposed on rennlist:

Each shop will get their own thread when you click on the XYZ motorsports on the master shop rating thread to collect feedback from forum members. You can look at it as a tweet or facebook page on rennlist for the shop involved. Each post under XYZ motorsports will give forum members an opportunity to share their experience be it good, neutral or bad with a final star rating. I will subscribe to each post and tally up the star counts and update the master list from time to time. This will not only promote involvement of various shop with customer service and will bring more traffic to rennlist and possibly more sponsors. We do need to emphasize that the rating system is for rennlist member's benefit and feedback will only be counted if the posting member meet certain requirement such as being on the forum for 6 month or 30 posts to weed out unwanted "hackers". Shops and vendor has to abide by rennlist rules which again will encourage more sponsorship if they want to be involve with customer feedback on their page. Flame wars will be discouraged and feedback from members involved in heated arguments will not be counted since it will be heavily biased. We do encourage members to exhaust all means to resolved issues with shops and vendors before posting angry threads ... which some times can not be avoided.

 

...and I also suspect this member is the brother of the owner of one of our sponsors. If this is true, would member here not wish this to be disclosed in a thread about vendors and shops? Without disclosure, how can we trust a member's opinion? Is a statement made as an honest opinion? Or is it made to damage a competitor's reputation? Or are multiple accounts made to build a reputation for a shop that he/she has vested interest.

bob

 

I like this idea - something we implemented in the marketplace forums to try and sort out plants and scammers, but they still get through sometimes.

 

Wow, some people are despirate. That's why I propose that the vote on shops can only be counted when they have at least good reuptationa nd be on the board to 6 months or longer to weed out the hecker

I am afraid there is no perfect system but I believe majority of the member will contribute usful information to help each other get the best service and value for their vehicle